February 13th, Dachau, Germany & Salzburg, Austria

Grammie and Grandpa flew in on Thursday, and the next morning we left for a Salzburg vacation. We stopped in Dachau, Germany to see the concentration camp. The town of Dachau is adorable, the camp was a sad reminder of the horrors of war. We then drove on later in the afternoon to Berchestgaden, Austria (about 15 minutes away from Salzburg). We drove through an awful snowstorm and barely made it to our house way up in the mountains. We were nearly stuck the next day in the house, but we made it out to explore the area. This three day trip was fantastic and beautiful!

Entering Dachau, "work will set you free"

This image is of the baths and the table was one of the places where they beat the prisoners.


Snowed in on the morning of day two, but the house was spectacular!!

Nolan made the best of it out in the snow!


Billy tried to make it an extreme sport event, but the snow was too deep.


Our first stop, the Salt Mines in Berchestgaden. An amazing trip and tremendous fun for the kids. It included slides, rides and we even crossed the border of Austria and Germany under ground.


This photo was taken during a ride on a boat in the underground lake used in medieval times to extract the salt from the mountain.


Video of us riding the slide the miners used to travel further underground.

We dined at St. Peter's Cellar, the oldest restaurant in Europe. Mozart and Charlemagne dined here too, but not on the same night.

The next morning we went into Salzburg. This was a very enthusiastic picture of Billy at the house where Mozart was born.


On to Hohensalzburg, the impressive fortress towering over the city of Salzburg. We rode a funicular to the top and toured the fortress. The city of Salzburg was beautiful from the top.


A view of the Salzburg Dom church from the top of the fortress.


Nolan at the highest point on the fortress.


Marionette's were a big part of theatre in Salzburg for centuries. Inside the fortress they have a mini-museum of Marionettes. Bill and Nolan learn how to manipulate this particularly creepy one.

This is Salzburg Dom. The church was beautiful.


Inside the Dom. The church was completely destroyed in WWII, and rebuilt as close to the original soon after the war.

The kids enjoy their Kaiserschmarrn, which is a rich pancake cut up into bite size pieces (literally translated, the kings scraps).

Traditional Salzburg dessert, a monstrosity. Katie was overwhelmed by it.

Our last day. We went further up into the mountains to go tobogganing. This ride was 3.5 km......quite a long ride, we went several times. It was awesome!!!


On the top of the mountain.


A video of Billy and Nolan racing down the slope.